NEW DELHI: With an aim to facilitate 40 lakh bus commuters in the national capital, the government on Sunday announced that they will soon provide National Common Mobility Card compliant digital ticketing solutions across all its Delhi Transport Corporation and Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System operated buses.
The transport department has issued a notice inviting an e-tender for this on January 8 2023. The NCMC-compliant digital ticketing solution will enable public transport in Delhi, beginning with buses, to move away from manual ticketing.
According to a senior official, on an average 40 lakh people travel in buses daily. It is important that a record of each trip is maintained for better planning of the number of buses across Delhi. “The digital ticketing solution is also part of the Route Rationalisation study conducted by the Transport department,” he said.
“The tender floated by the transport department includes the supply and operation of Electronic Ticketing Machines for 7,500 buses. It also includes the provision of smart cards for buying the tickets rather than paying in cash,” the official said.
An official said that the feature to enable buying online tickets and concessional daily or monthly passes has also been included. “The ETM machine will also be issuing pink tickets, enabling women to travel for free,” he said.
Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said, “Delhi has been committed to provide more convenient and safe travel for its citizens. We wanted to totally move away with the current manual ticketing where the origin and destination are not being captured at all.”
“The NCMC enabled solution will help them to use the same card for multi-modal transit systems starting with bus and metro rail,” he added.